The White House said on Friday it was continuing to study evidence that the Syrian government has used chemical weapons and would not set a timetable for corroborating reports.
The U.S. intelligence community believes Syria used chemical weapons on anti-government rebels.
Damascus will not use chemical weapons against its own citizens, or in the event of war with its neighbor Israel, Syria\’s Information Minister was quoted as saying on Wednesday.
Syrian forces have used chemical weapons against rebel forces and civilians, the head of Israel\’s military research said.
The Syrian government has reportedly withdrawn thousands of troops near the buffer zone between Israel and Syria in the Golan Heights, leaving a power vacuum that Israel is concerned could be filled with jihadist forces ready to turn their guns on the Jewish state.
Theft and shelling have damaged a 2,000 year-old synagogue in Damascus, one of the oldest in the world, Syrian government and opposition activist sources said on Monday.
The 2,000-year-old Jobar Synagogue in the Syrian capital of Damascus was looted and burned to the ground.
Israel could withstand any attack involving Syrian chemical weapons, an Israeli general said on Friday, adding it was improbable that Damascus would order such a strike.
U.N. peacekeepers monitoring the ceasefire line between Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights have scaled back patrols after rebels detained 21 Filipino observers for three days last week, diplomats said on Thursday.
Syrian President Bashar Assad said that his country would retaliate against Israel for a January air strike on a weapons facility near Damascus, a day after mortar shells fired from Syria landed in northern Israel.
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